An AXTI Get Together ...

Mon and his officemates before from AXTI Internet (aka Axcess Technologies, Inc.) had a small get together at Mike Peralta's apartment in BF Homes, Parañaque last January 22, 2006. Click here to view the pictures ... (c/o Miss Inna Cabral)

Chloe at 4 yrs & 7 months

I just finished posting Chloe's January 2006 photos. She's 4 yrs and 7 months during that month. You may view her pictures by clicking here.

Trip to Avilon Zoo and more ...

AVILON ZOO ... Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) ... Mc James Factory ... Philippine Science Centrum ... and the Guinness Book of World Record's Largest Shoes (Riverbank Center). These were the places we visited last Thursday, January 26, 2006 for Chloe's first school field trip.

Things to bring for the field trip was prepared the day before. Chloe woke up early last Thursday ... at 5:30 am, I didn't hear any complaints or whatsoever from her when I woke her up. I simply said, "Chloe, it's time to wake up ... today is the day we are going to the zoo ..."

And without batting an eyelash, she opened her eyes, smiled and said, "Okay mom, wake up na si Chloe ... pero bakit wala pang sun?"

I explained that it was too early and the sun hasn't woken up yet. But after a few minutes, the sun will wake up soon. Of course, I was crossing my fingers when I said that. The weather had been cloudy with light rainshowers since Monday and that morning was not different.

Before we left the house, I gave Chloe Bonamine chewable tablets for kids. This medicine has been proven effective to prevent Chloe from having motion sickness and from vomiting during trips wherein we have to take the bus.

Assembly time was between 6-6:30 am at Wise Kids School. Chloe and I were inside the tourist bus by 6:15 am. Mon was not able to come with us as much as he would like to because work was scheduled for him that day. He was, however, able to accompany us to school and see us get seated inside the bus.

At 6:30 am, there was less than half of us inside the bus. And thus, we had to wait for a few more minutes. We left the school at 7 am. The bus driver said it was going to take between an hour and a half or 2 hours to get to Avilon Zoo, Montalban, Rizal depending on the traffic situation.

Teacher Sharon led a short prayer before we left the school for a safe and successful field trip. Then, our tour guide ("Ate Jack") started by introducing herself and our bus driver ("Kuya Tito"). Bus rules and guidelines were discussed followed by a series of games to keep the kids awake and pre-occupied. We sang children's songs ... played a naming game of animals, fruits and veggies ... When we reached EDSA, Ate Jack gave more informative details about the roads we passed ... a little background and history plus some trivial information as well.

The trip was a smooth and easy one with light to moderate traffic. Chloe and I were seated in the front row. I paid for the tickets early so that we can choose where we want to be seated. The tourist bus was very comfortable ... there were two seats on each side ... aircondition was good ... and KUDOS to Kuya Tito's driving! He was a smooth and careful driver and I am very thankful for that.

As we reached the town of Montalban, we got more excited! In a few minutes, we were going to see the much talked about zoo in Rizal. The road to Avilon zoo was a bit narrow with only 2 lanes. As we continued our slow but careful journey, we could already see the zoo proper from the bus.

Ate Jack briefed us on some rules and regulations of the zoo:

(1) tour lasts approximately 2 hours;
(2) only bottled water is allowed during the tour ... however, there are designated areas where you can eat;
(3) cameras and videocameras are allowed ... however, there are certain areas where taking of pictures is prohibited like the "primates area". In the "reptiles area", taking pictures is allowed as long as flash is not used;
(4) tapping of glass is also prohibited

I first heard about Avilon Zoo when it was aired in Korina Sanchez's show, BALITANG K a few years back. From that moment on, I have been telling my husband, Mon, that it would be nice if we could go there for a visit too. We were able to visit Manila Zoo, January 2005, and Chloe and I had a wonderful time then.

We arrived at Avilon Zoo around 9 am. There were already other tourist buses that were parked and lots of students from other schools were lined up. We went to the restrooms first just to make sure Chloe doesn't ask us to go there in the middle of the tour.

Before the tour started, we were able to shoot a few pictures near the pavilion area (where you can buy food and buy souvenir items). Afterwhich, we all formed a line (parents on the left, children on the right).

The tour started with the crocodiles area ... The crocodiles we saw came in different sizes and shades. Funny though, a capybara (largest rodent) is what you will see upon entering the crocodiles area.

Next were the birds ... I think almost 75% of the animals inside the zoo were birds. Thus the name, "AVILON" which means "land of the birds". There were different varieties, colors, sizes and shapes. There are too many to mention but all were worth seeing!

The lions and lionesses area was surrounded by water with arapaimas in it. You can feed these fish chopped chicken which you can buy for P10. When you throw these chopped parts into the water, it seemed like there was an explosion everytime it landed on the water because the arapaimas would move and make splashes.

We saw more animals but I can no longer remember all their names ... there were just too many to mention. You will see more of these animals in the photo album whose link I will give later on ...

Chloe enjoyed the primates are the most. We were amazed to see the smallest monkeys ... they were soo cute! No pictures were taken during this part of the tour because this was one of the areas were taking pictures was prohibited.

There were also areas inside the zoo where you can have your picture taken with some of the animals for a certain amount. Some of these animals were owls, eagles, snakes, horse ... etc ...

Last stop was the reptiles area ... mostly snakes, with some turtles, tarantulas and the like. The snakes came in different sizes and colors ... some, you wouldn't even notice right away because their color seemed to blend in with the environment.

All in all, I would say that visiting AVILON ZOO was worth the trip. Touring the 7.5 hectare area was surely tiring but you won't feel it when you're there because of all the wonderful animals you will see.

When we finished the tour, it was lunch time ... We ate our packed lunches inside the bus where it was cold and comfortable. The pavilion area was packed and the rain was pouring hard then. I wish we could have stayed longer and the pacing was slower ... but, what can we do ... it was a group tour and there were still other places to visit.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR PICTURES FROM AVILON ZOO. You may want to visit this website (http://www.geocities.com/avilon_zoo) where you can read more useful information and see other photogalleries of the animals.

P.S. Updated phone number of Avilon Zoo is (632) 948-9866; 941-8393; Entrance Fee is Php 208.00

Trip to Marikina City and more ...

After Avilon Zoo, second on our itinerary was MRF or Materials Recovery Facility located in Brgy. Parang, Marikina. On our way there, almost all the kids and most of the parents were asleep ... we were so tired from trekking Avilon Zoo plus the fact that we all woke up early that day.

Not everyone was able to go down to look at the place because most were asleep. Not us, Chloe woke up in time to see the beautiful vegetable garden and fruit tree orchards. It was raining a little bit which is why Chloe wore her raincoat and I brought my umbrella. Click here to view the pictures taken at MRF.

Third on our itinerary was the Doll Museum ... still in Marikina City. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside. All the same, we enjoyed viewing the dolls that looked like Filipino barbie dolls all dressed up in Filipino clothes and depicted the Filipinos' way of life, culture and traditions. Each enclosed glass showed our national costumes, filipino games like sunka, patintero, etc ... Traditions like the harana, bayanihan, senakulo and the like were also depictedin each glass box.

Fourth on our itinerary was Mc James Factory ... again, still in Marikina city ... all products (shoes, slippers, bags, etc...) made by this factory are hand made. Click here to view pictures of how shoes are hand made.

Fifth on our itinerary was Philippine Science Centrum beside Riverbank Center, Marikina. The kids enjoyed going to this place next to Avilon Zoo. It was an educational visit as well as fun filled. I think you will agree with me when you see the pictures by clicking here.

And last but not the least, the Guinness Book of World Record's Largest Shoe inside one of the stores in Riverbank Center, Marikina was our last stop. Click here to view the pictures ... It was already 6:30 pm when we left Marikina. Luckily, there was no traffic going home. We were already inside Villa Carolina Subd. 1 before 8 pm.

Home Sweet Home ... It was so nice to finally rest ... Chloe and I were so tired, we were sleeping like a baby before 9 pm.

And this concludes my blog for the day ...

Christening at Mary Immaculate Parish

Last January 15, 2006 (Sunday), my family and I attended the Christening of our youngest niece ... Alessandra Nicole Rebosa who was barely 3 months old yet so big for her age! Mon and his brothers were all godfathers ...

The Christening Rites were performed inside Mary Immaculate Church, Moonwalk Subdivision, Las Piñas City at 11 am. Reception followed at Congo Grille, Ayala Alabang.

This was my first time to enter the said Parish Church despite the fact that I grew up in Las Piñas most of life ... Many times have my family passed by this Church but we have never heard mass nor entered it. I was amazed ... It was such a sight to see ... reminded me of how I felt the first time we visited Manila Zoo. Nature played a good role in decorating the church's surrounding. Though it was a sunny day, it wasn't hot nor humid ... It was very cool and breezy ... many trees shaded the church from the Sun's heat. In fact, instead of chairs, there were tree stumps lined in rows ... If Mon and I only knew how beautiful this Church was and how near it was (we used to stay in Las Piñas City back then) ... we might have decided on having our wedding there 7 years ago.

Upon entering the Parish gates, you can see another entrance on the right side which looked like the adoration chapel ... this is where we stayed while waiting for the mass to end and while waiting for Nicole and her parents to arrive.

A little past 11am, the ceremony started ... seemed like all the godparents were complete. It was a mass Christening ceremony ... I don't think they still offer a "special" ceremony for an individual celebrant. Though the ceremony was performed to a lot of celebrants, each were called by name and were given their turn to be annointed by the Parish priest. The ceremony was finished after an hour and everybody headed to Congo Grille, Ayala Alabang.

Congo Grille serves food similar of those by Jerry's Grill, Dencio's, Manong's ... to mention a few. Ginataang Kuhol was served as an appetizer ... after a few more minutes, other delicious food were served like ... sinigang na baboy, beef with mushroom, tuna belly in barbeque sauce, lumpiang shanghai, and chicken barbeque ... my apologies if I might have failed to mention the others that were served. But, my compliments to the chef for serving such delightful dishes! We were so full!

Again, thank you, Mr. & Mrs. Richard Rebosa for inviting us to share with you this special event in your family's life ... (click here to view more pictures ...)

Another satisfied customer ...

My first digital camera was a Sony Mavica FD-75 which was a gift from my mom when I gave birth to Chloe 4 and a half years ago. It was a VGA camera which was good for posting on websites and for sending thru email. However, print size was limited to 3R (3.5 x 5 inches) and storage was limited to a floppy diskette, which at first was okay but eventually, it became a problem because floppies aren't very reliable. They are easily affected by weather changes and there were times that my floppy drive couldn't read the diskette or the floppy couldn't be read by my camera's drive. And, you could only store about 24 pictures per diskette.

Three years after that, I have decided that I needed a higher pixel camera ... not too high ... just enough so that I can make beautiful 4x6 prints and decent 8x11s. And thus, my search for the perfect digital camera for family use ...
My search started by reading about digital cameras ... learning their terminologies ... what those high falluting terms meant and how it was equivalent and how it was different from film. Friends also gave tips and recommendations ... And so, the brands narrowed to CANON, SONY, NIKON and FUJI.

As I read on more about the different product reviews of each company, almost all had good things to say about their picture quality ... but, CANON, caught my eye the most.

Canon's models were a bit more expensive than the others and you would wonder why since the size of memories bundled are usually the same but the batteries that go with them when you buy them are usually the alkalines or the disposable types as compared to Sony, which packages their models with rechargeables. And so, I read on ... compared each teeny weenie detail and compared the two ...

Finally, I decided on Canon's powershot A75 (December 2004) ... This is their 3 megapixel camera which had good reviews and was well recommended for the beginner and for the enthusiast. It had been in the market for almost more than 2 years ... the features, like the flash range, autofocus speed, etc ... were all taken into consideration ... though not your pocket size camera, it was small enough for me. I liked the idea of having AA batteries to supply power to your camera because it was very economical and practical as well. I learned this because my first Sony digital camera ran on lithium batteries which were expensive and you can't buy them anywhere to get you through the day's shoot.
Unexpectedly, my A75 just gave me a distorted image on the LCD one day ... My mind was thinking ... Did I do something which might have affected the camera? What went wrong? Did I make a mistake by choosing this model? What was wrong? I read good reviews and the model was pretty well recommended ... This baby was barely a year old!!! Still under warranty, I told myself ... at least, that was a relief.

I called and asked some of my friends who also owned Canon digital cameras that belonged to the A series line if they experienced similar problems as mine. Fortunately, one of them told me about the CCD issue that was posted as a notice from Canon Marketing Philippines' website. And so, I called Canon Marketing Philippines' number ... they said that they were going to repair it free of charge ... I told them it was still under warranty. They said that because it was a CCD issue, that even if it was no longer under warranty, they would repair it.

It was already November 2005 when my camera broke down ... The following day, my husband, Mon, brought it to their service center in Makati. They said it was going to take 14 working days (not including Sat & Sun) minimum. Oh my God! It was going to be December before they were going to finish it?!? My mind was racing ... I thought, Christmas is just around the corner and I had no camera to use for the Chloe's school activities (the xmas party, the cantata, the reunions ...). After a week I called to follow-up, they said there wasn't any feedback from the tech dept. Another week went by and they said that they were expecting the CCD part to be shipped by 1st week of December. I said, once the CCD part arrives, how long will it take for you to install and align the lens? They said it was going to take 7 days max ... I said, okay but it would really be nice if they could lend me a service unit which I could use for the meantime. They said, they were going to loan units because it was Christmas season and they did understand the need ... And so, a few days after, Mon went back to Canon, Makati to pick up the loan unit.

It was a powershot A520 ... a 4 megapixel camera model that replaced the A75. It was smaller, lighter, with a 4x optical zoom lens (as compared to the 3x optical zoom in the A75) and had an additional feature which was a flash zoom. Though it was smaller, it had the same large lcd size as the A75. Though it was lighter, because it ran on 2 AA batteries (as compared to the 4 AAs of the A75), it seemed to be slower ... When taking pictures with flash, it takes about 15 seconds before you can start shooting again. That part, I didn't like ... But it did really well in terms of picture quality ... It was as excellent as the A75.
Come second week of December, I called again to follow-up ... this time, when they told me that the CCD part was going to arrive around 2nd or 3rd week of December ... I got really pissed off! I told them that what the ?!? You guys seem to be changing your statements everytime I call ... I told them to just give it to me straight ... It would be easier if they told me the truth. To just tell me if it was irrepairable. They said it was repairable and that there was just a long line of cameras to be repaired and the shipment they were expecting from Singapore was used up and they had to re-order for another batch of CCDs. Rest assured they told me that the CCD lens would be replaced by a new and upgraded version.

I said fine ... Christmas came and went by and still no feedback ... New year 2006 arrived and when I called they said installation was already ongoing. I was happy to hear the news ... Then last Monday, January 9, Canon gave us a call and told us that my A75 was ready for pick-up. Of course, I was so excited! I love that camera so much!

However, when I got it last Wednesday, January 11, I was so disappointed ... my zoom lens were not working ... the mode dial did not correspond to the mode they were supposed to be in ... the display button wasn't working too ... I couldn't reset the settings to default because the menu button wouldn't respond as well. I was furious!

It was decided that the following day, January 12, Mon and I would go back to Canon and have them replace my unit with a new one or just refund our money.
When we got there, I kept my cool and talked to them about what had happened when they returned the camera. I asked them if they could just replace the unit because I no longer want the unit if they were to tell me that they were going to repair it again. I said that they have already caused us too much trouble and have wasted our time and money. And, I no longer have good faith that the camera would last long since it has been opened by God knows how many persons/technicians. I told them that the reason why we brought it to them in the first place wasn't because of my mishandling but because they installed a defective CCD in the said model. And when they returned it, instead of returning it to its original state, it came back with more problems.

A Customer relations officer handled my situation. She listened to all that I said and without any qualms, she told me that she would try her best to negotiate what she could do. When she came back, she told me that there were no more A75 models. She said if it would be okay if they gave me the A520. I told them I would prefer an A series model but one which is powered with 4 AA batteries. I explained that although the A520 was a higher megapixel camera, a smaller and lighter one ... it took a long time to take pictures with flash. I told her about my experience with the said camera during the Christmas Cantata of my daughter and how through the entire presentation, that I was only able to take about 12 shots. She understood, gave me a smile and excused herself ...
Finally, when she came back, she gave me a close-up smile and grinned ... she said they were going to replace my unit with the A610 ... a powerful 5 megapixel camera, powered by 4 AA batteries, with 4x optical zoom, a rotating 2 inch lcd screen, lots of additional features and with the DIGIC II processor which meant faster autofocus.

I was happy and very satisfied with how it turned out. I gave them my camera together with its box, accessories, manuals and cds. And in return, they gave me a new boxed unit of the powershot A610.

In closing ... I just want everyone to know that if you had the same experience as I have with the CCD of Canon's digital cameras, please bring it to Canon Marketing Philippines in Makati. They will accomodate you well ...

signed,
just another satisfied customer of Canon's digital cameras ...

SAISAKI

The day before my mom left to go back to the States, we had lunch at Saisaki at Alabang Town Center. The best pa rin ang buffet ng Saisaki! Talagang worth it yung ibabayad na pera for the food ... Grabe, we were so full afterwards ;9 Click here to view our pics ...

Rebosa Clan Annual New Year Reunion 2006

Happy New Year! Our family celebrated 2006 with the Rebosa Clan ... held at Tita Lucy's house in San Pedro, Laguna ... our annual reunion with the Rebosas was a fun-filled affair full of food, games and prizes! To view the pictures, click here.